The Michigan Wolverines are off to another fast start; this time however it’s under new head coach Brady Hoke.
Hoke has his team 5-0 and coming off a 58-0 thrashing of Minnesota. Their reward for this hot start is a #12 national ranking. But is this Michigan team really the 12th best team in the country?
The 11 teams ahead of them are in order: LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Boise State, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Clemson, Oregon, Arkansas, and Texas. Could Michigan beat any of these teams on a neutral site? Absolutely not.
Now lets look at some of the teams ranked below Michigan in the polls. By my estimation there are seven teams that would beat Michigan on a neutral site and they are: (13) Georgia Tech, (14) Nebraska, (15) Auburn, (17) Florida, (18 South Carolina), and (25) Baylor.
Michigan has exactly one impressive win in their 5-0 start, which by the way all five games have been at home, and that one impressive win was this past week against Minnesota.
And Minnesota is awful.
The fact is that Michigan did not look all that impressive against their opening game against Western Michigan. Got outplayed in every phase of the game against Notre Dame only to have Notre Dame hand the game over. A 28 point win is usually nothing to gripe about, but when your Michigan playing Eastern Michigan it is. Don’t kid yourself, San Diego State is not that good. A 21 point win there is nothing to gloat about.
Strengthening their case as most overrated team in the country is a week six matchup against Northwestern. Finally a road game. Michigan wins 35 – 17. Another win, but another win that doesn’t really impress.
It will be a rude awakening when Michigan gets to play legitimate Big 10 opponents again. Win against Michigan State and Nebraska?
Not a chance.
At Iowa, never easy. At #19 Illinois, Michigan would consider themselves lucky to walk out of there with a win. Then there’s Ohio State who the Wolverines haven’t beat in ages.
That leaves us with two guaranteed wins for the rest of the season and that’s this weekend at Northwestern and October 29th at home against Purdue.
Don’t be stunned if Michigan loses five of their last six and finishes 7-5. Just because Rich Rod isn’t in town anymore doesn’t make the team immune to a second half collapse.